All these wines, like those previously mentioned, were strained through the colum vinarium before they were served to the guests. This strainer was composed of two round, deep dishes, of four inches in diameter. The upper part was pierced, and received the wine, which ran into the lower recipient, whence the cups were filled.[XXVIII_132]
In Rome the price of common wine—sometimes adulterated[XXVIII_133]—was 300 sesterces for 40 urns, or 15 sesterces for an amphora; that is to say, about sixpence per gallon.[XXVIII_134] At Athens it was thought dear when it cost fourpence per gallon. This measure was commonly sold for not more than twopence.[XXVIII_135]
In the early days of the Roman republic women were forbidden to drink wine;[XXVIII_136] but that law fell into disuse, and noble matrons often carried intemperance as far as their toping husbands.
LIQUEUR WINE.
It must be owned that the Roman law was, for a long time, tyrannical in the extreme with regard to women. Totally interdict the use of wine! Kill the unfortunate creatures who were unable to resist the seductions of that dangerous liquor! For the Roman history furnishes us with more than one example of that atrocious chastisement inflicted on the guilty thirst of the fair sex. The barbarous Micennius immolated his wife on the butt, at which he caught her one day, quenching her thirst at the tap or the bunghole. The ferocious Romulus thought this act simple and natural: he did not even reprimand the cruel husband.[XXVIII_137]
Another unfortunate creature discovered the place where her husband kept the keys of the cellar. She took them, and had the imprudent curiosity to go and visit the mysterious and inauspicious treasure, to which she was forbidden all access. Her family perceived this innocent larceny, and refused her every kind of food, to punish her for an imaginary crime. She died in the tortures of hunger.[XXVIII_138]
Is it necessary to speak of C. Domitius, that uncourteous judge, who deprived a lady of her marriage portion because she had taken the liberty to drink a spoonful or two of wine unknown to her lord and master?[XXVIII_139] But, let us say it at once—Roman civilisation put an end to such strange manners; and so early as the age of Augustus, Livia, the consort of that emperor, affirmed, when eighty-two years old, that she was indebted to Bacchus for her long existence.[XXVIII_140] Let us remark, by the way, that the great prince, her husband, honoured the labours of the vine-dresser and the serious study of wines,[XXVIII_141] to which little attention had been paid down to his time. It began then to be understood that this grateful drink draws the ties of friendship closer,[XXVIII_142] and all honest people, all generous souls, were eager to taste it.
The good Trajan quaffed off numberless cups every day: of course he became the idol of the human species.[XXVIII_143] Agricola wished to drink before he died.[XXVIII_144] The imbecile Claudius often found some ray of wisdom at the bottom of an amphora.[XXVIII_145] Domitian merited the pardon of his crimes, thanks to the streams of wine which during the night ran from the fountains;[XXVIII_146] and Caligula would, perhaps, have obtained that popularity which always failed him, had he possessed sufficient sense to offer to the Roman people the delicious Falernian wine he allotted to his favourite horse.[XXVIII_147]
The ladies ventured, in the first place, to wet their lips with a few drops of those light wines which the sun seemed to ripen for them at Tibur, in the environs of Cumæ, and throughout Campania.[XXVIII_148] After a short time, they braved the Falernian itself—true, they generally mixed it with iced water or snow;[XXVIII_149] but the boldest are reported to have risked that dangerous liquor without taking such timid precautions. Falernian was a noble wine! They began to drink it as soon as it had reached its tenth year. Then it was possible to bear up against it. When it was twenty years old, it could only be mastered after it was diluted with water. If older, it was unconquerable; it attacked the nerves, and caused excruciating headache.[XXVIII_150] The ladies struggled a long time for the victory; but, alas! the Falernian always had the best of it. Tired out, at length, with so many useless efforts, the wisest of them left it to their husbands, and sought other beverages which possessed less dangerous charms. Greece and Italy invented new drinks for them, which had a well-merited vogue, notwithstanding the discredit into which they have fallen for many centuries past. Our modern beauties would smile with an air of incredulity if we were to extol asparagus wine, winter savory wine, wild marjoram wine, parsley seed wine, or those made from mint, rue, pennyroyal, and wild thyme; and yet these liquors were the delectable drinks of the most distinguished women of ancient Rome, of those women who could never find in the culinary productions of the entire universe anything sufficiently delicate or rare. Are we, then, to blame their taste, or question our own?